Man gets Hard 50 sentence in Wichita woman’s death

WICHITA, Kansas (AP) – A Sedgwick County judge imposed a Hard 50 prison sentence on a man convicted of killing a Wichita woman while he was on parole for another murder in Lawrence.

Tyrone Walker was sentenced Thursday for strangling 44-year-old Janis Sanders in June 2011. He had been paroled in February of that year after serving a 12-year sentence for killing 25-year-old Tamara Baker in October 1989.

District Judge Joseph Bribiesca imposed the Hard 50 sentence less than a month after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that questioned the constitutionality of such sentences. Bribiesca said the ruling did not apply to Walker’s case.

Questions about the Hard 50 sentence prompted a special session of the Kansas Legislature, which will convene next month.

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